Saturday, October 14, 2006

Alarm

I know I said I was taking a blog break, but hey, I'm Dr. A and I'm a blogaholic. Plus, I just had to share this short story with you. So, I'm on call. And, you know what that means: busy, busy, busy, tired, etc.

Usually after finishing rounds at the hospital, I stop at the office to try to catch up on some paperwork there. It's windy and cool here today, so I wanted to get inside quickly. So, I turn the key of the door and slip in.

The next thing I usually do is put my code into the security system keypad. I missed by one number and accidentally hit enter. Then, I panicked. For what felt like hours, although it was only less than a minute, I frantically tried to correct my error.

The alarm went off inside the office. I'm the only one here, so I kept working to try to enter the right code. I hear the phone ringing. It's the alarm system company. I tried to explain the problem, and seemed to solve the situation.

Relaxed, I walk down to my office and try to find a chart. Suddenly, I hear sirens get closer to the office. We're located right next to the hospital, so I figured it was an ambulance coming to the emergency room.

When I saw the police car rushing into our parking lot, my feeling of embarrassment grew. I went outside and saw that it was an officer who has done security for our soccer games in the past.

"Doc," he said smiling, "Forgot your code again, huh?" "No," I replied, "I missed one number and all this happened." "On call again, are ya?" "Yup."

Thought you would get a kick out of this. I'm sure some of you out there in blogland have done something funny and embarrassing like this before. What's your story?

21 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Yes, Dr. A, We had just moved into our new house. The people before us said they had disarmed the alarm system. Of course they hadn't. How did we find out? My wife was baking something in the oven and there was something at the bottom of it that started smoking. Smoke filled the kitchen and the alarm started to go off. We frantically looked around for a clue and found something pencilled on the wall near the alarm box. We got it off, but then heard distant sirens. The sirens grew closer (along with the honks from fire engines) and finally the trucks pulled into our cul-de-sac. We sheepishly explained this to the fireman and he had a good laugh. We didn't have to pay anything.

Embarassing, but funny *snicker* My story:Just a few weeks ago, my husband was traveling. I attempted to set the alarm in our house before I went to bed, and I accidentally set it off because I forgot to punch in the fact that I was STAYING in the house, rather than EXITING. A few minutes later, the phone rings. Yes, it was the security company.

I do this at my parents house ALL the time. I know the code, I know the password. But that damn key pad friggin hates me! My hands shake whenever I put the key in the door just thinking about that alarm pad.

I was a private banker . . . I have set off alarms and seen others set them off numerous times. Once, another banker hit an alarm with his elbow, and no one knew. I went outside to get my phone from my car, and when I turned to go inside, there was a cop with his gun out aimed at the door . . . That was scary. I had to call inside the branch and go through the whole procedure. In banking it's a little more involved than the alarm company calling.

Another time I accidentally dialed 911 from a branch phone . . . The phone system was one where you had to dial 9 to get out. I got ahead of myself and dialed the code for the next system (instead of the number I wanted to dial). The number started with 11 . . . duh. BTW, the procedures for "fixing" this faux pas in a bank are pretty embarassing. :o/

Been there, done that and even though I explained it to the security company, the police turned up (although it was 1 hour later...good job the pyjamed man they were suspicious of really was my husband!)

Well....can't say that I've ever had that experience as I don't live in a place where they have alarm systems or anything. But one time, my next door neighbor started a fire in the fire place without opening the flu! That brought out the fire company for sure!

He was always doing something like that. Funny guy - him and his wife had immigrated here from India years ago, and they have 2 daughters that both ended up going to Penn. The dad is really short, and they were constantly calling my dad over to help them pull the emergency cord in the garage, put the tv on the tv stand, etc.

I'll never forget hearing why the fire truck had come out to our neighborhood! I'm just very glad nobody got hurt!! I bet this happens to quite a few people!!

Oh yes, I had hit the "silent robbery" alarm button at work once..I was mortified by it.. Here I was the district supervisor and had been talking to some of the clerks and forgot they had those darn alarms (can't tell ya where they are) really close to where I was at. I hit it with my hand.

We didn't even know I had hit it..But the phone rang and they asked every question imaginable. From..."What is the password? To the color clothing someone was wearing who would be coming outside to meet the cops who were on their way." They was NO WAY to cancel the cops coming...Now, to make it even more interesting...It was my husband who was one of the cops that came...

Imagine having to tell your husband and HIS BOSS what an idiot you are. Not to mention the entire dam store thought it was hilarious that Cathy had set off the robbery alarm...

I scheduled myself to be in stores out of town for about the next 2 months...

It was almost a year after we were married, and we were still in our first apartment.

I smelled SMOKE. Not cigarette smoke, but FIRE smoke. It was faint, but discernable. I sniffed at all the vents, and it SEEMED a touch stronger the farther from the front of the apartment out in the main living area, we got.

So, I call the fire department, because I figure, what if it's an electrical wiring problem smouldering in the walls?

So, we call the fire dept., and I then leave the door open and we go outside.

They come up, sirens a'blazing. They come in, and sniff around too and try to find it. They come back out, and one takes off their gear that probably smells smoky, and goes back in to try to find it. They don't find anything, and say next time to leave the door closed cause we probably let it dissipate.

They also checked with our apartment neighbors.

So, the leave, and I am MORTIFIED!

This is not the end of the story . . . .

The next morning, when I open up the dishwasher, a lightweight durable plastic serving spoon had gotten pushed up out of the basket, and had fallen down against the heating element, and smoldered/caught fire.

When I picked it up, the two pieces separated as it was completely ash there.

CRUD! It coulda started a fire in the night! Eeek . . . I kinda wanted to take it over to the fire station to prove I wasn't nuts, lol, but I didn't . .

Bwahaha! You set off a false alarm. I love it! That might be something I'd do on purpose as a prank. :p

Months ago, I was waiting in the lobby of a movie theater with my husband. I started stroking his nape in a sweet caress. When I loked again, I realized it was NOT my husband I was touching but a totally stunned stranger! Now that, my dear doctor, was embarrassing! :p

How can you be serious about practicing medicine if you are a blogaholic and continue to blog?. Either blogging destroys your life or it doesn't. If it doesn't, please consider changing from "blogaholic" to something else.

From a medical standpoint, or any other standpoint, addictions are serious diseases and need treatment. If you are a blogaholic, you should delete your blog. If you're not, you should change your diagnosis.

I once had a rental car with an alarm that chose for itself when it should go off.

Just arrive at the hotel in Maui, pulled into the parking lot of the condo complex where we were staying, got out, locked the car and the alarm went on. I pushed every button...nothing. After about five minutes of the blaring bleeps and honks several people came out to try to lend a hand. When they realized it was not my fault they got a lot nicer...thank god. No one could turn it off. The car had become obsessed with all the attention. In a fit of anger, because it was 11:30 p.m., I was tired from travelling, I threw the keys on the ground. Instantly there was silence quickly followed by a round of applause from all who had gathered including the two security gaurds who showed up to see what all the commotion was about. Everyone shook their head, shrugged their shoulders then went back to their condo.It was definately not the highlight of the trip but it did make for good conversation the next day at the pool.

Ohh my that is funny!!! and it sucks.. I have never lived in a place with an alarm but the local police dept got rather used to me callin for lockin my keys in my car when i was pregnant with my oldest... after a while they just chuckled when they heard my voice and asked where i was *blush*...

It must be a week for alarm problems. I live in a vet clinic (yeah, thats right I live in the clinic and no, I'm not boarding :-) and we had the fire alarm go off at 3am. So there I was in my PJ's, barefoot, explaining to the cops and firefirghters why we (I have a roommate) were in the clinc that time of day :-) I blame my roommate, it was the sensor in her room that was malfunctioning!

We have personal 'key cards' to get in and out different parts of the office. (Each person's card is programmed according to where they need to go.) One weekend I had my son with me at the office. Unbeknownst to me he had waved my card many times in front of the computer LAN room door (which only the IT people have access to). On Monday I had quite a lot of explaining to do because they thought I had been trying to break into the LAN room.